Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch

Sweetheart. Honey.  Sunshine. Angel. Darling. Baby.

I'm willing to bet that all of us have pet names like these for our loved ones - especially our kids.  I was thinking about this recently when I went to pick up Anna from day care. As you know from the title of the blog, Anna has long been "the Pie" or "Annapie" to her family and to many of our friends as well.

She's also had many other names, including "Sweet Pea," "Burrito," "Peapod," and my personal favorite, the combo, "Anna Peapod Pie." These all arose when she was new and tiny and always wrapped up in something warm.

Peapod & Mama Heidi

Anyway, many of Anna's classmates call her "Anna Banana," and I think her teachers sometimes do too. When I came into the classroom one day last week, I said something like, "Where's my Pie?"  Before Anna answered me, a cute little boy quickly informed me that "she's not a pie, she's Anna!" Of course, I laughed.


Anna herself corrects me sometimes when we're playing, and it strikes me as funny how kids take things so literally. Nicknames and figures of speech like "raining cats and dogs" must seem silly to them at first, especially when they realize it doesn't literally rain cats and dogs, or when they've just learned their own name.

Over time, though, Anna has started using nicknames or pet names for her own friends. She calls her favorite friend her "best buddy" and refers to another little boy as "Natey Bird." Although I'm mostly "mom" or "mommy" now, I do still get called "Mama T" sometimes. Which is a lot better than other nicknames that have been bestowed upon me over the years - such as Court, Suzie Q (yes, my first name is Susan and NOBODY calls me that...except Kels from time to time), Scum (thanks to my initials, SCM) and Shrimpy (8th Grade).

One of them should've been "Mohawk"

Only my Grandma and my childhood best friend can call me Court and get a response from me.  ;)

All of this is to say, it's funny that we have this universal tendency to use nicknames or pet names for each other or for ourselves. Sometimes we love them and sometimes we hate them. Sometimes they make perfect sense, or they're generic, or they make no sense at all but they make us laugh.

So, what I'd love you awesome readers to do is comment on this post with your favorite (or funniest) pet names or nicknames that you use for your child, or that were yours when you were a kid. If you're feeling adventurous, you can also tell us how the nickname arose. Maybe I'm the only weirdo who thinks this is interesting, but I guess we'll find out!